Adjustable garment



Aug. 9, 1955 B. F. KRAMER ADJUSTABLE GARMENT Filed July 17, 1952 INVENTOR. Beatrice E Kramer ATTORNEY United States Patent 0 "ice mans ADJUSTABLE GARMENT Beatrice F. Kramer, Port Chester, N. Y. Application" my 17, i952, Serial No; 299,388 2 Claims. (cl. 2-7'0) This invention relates to clothing which is adjustable either as tolength or girth, or both, and to a method of making such clot hing.

The general object of the invention is to provide adjustable clothing of novel construction, with means incorporated in such clothingwhereby the clothing may be selectively lengthened or shortened, or made fuller or, less full, as desired. The hereiii described means for adjusting the size of articles of clothing would ordinarily be more suitable for childrens clothing and certain classes of dresses for women, such as maids" and nurses uniforms; however, the means may be applied to any of a great variety of garments which are desired to be adjustable.

A particular object is to provide a novel dress for a little girl, especially a child in the early years of life where growth is rapid. This object pertains to a dress which may be easily lengthened and made fuller as required by the childs growth. A feature of the invention is that adjustments of size of the dress, or any other garment constructed according to the present invention, do not inuseful for her, the dress may still serve a smaller sister or sisters until she or they also outgrow the greatest adjustment of garment.

Another object of the invention is to provide a blouse or like garment which may readily be adjusted as to girth. This garment may be a childs or womans blouse.

Other objects of the invention are to provide novel garments of any class wherein selective adjustments of size are desirable. With respect to uniforms for maids and nurses the invention is advantageous in that a housewife, having uniforms constructed according to the invention, is not required to buy a new wardrobe upon a change of servants, as the uniforms may be varied in size within limits to fit different women. The advantages of selective adjustability of size in maternity garments will be selfevident.

The invention is specially useful in childrens clothing of many kinds, including slack suits, coveralls, playsuits, beach clothing, and others.

The structure herein described may be utilized for the adjustable attachment of collars and cuffs, peplums, dickeys, and other clothing accessories.

These and other objects and features of the invention will be more fully understood from the following description and from the drawing, in which two forms of the invention are illustrated.

2,714,718 Patented Aug.- 9, 1955 In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a front view of a childs dress constructed according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a rear view of the same dress;

Fig. 3 is the stepped section- 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig.- 4 is a fragmentary view of the side' of a blouse. Here the armhole is seen as the sleeve has been removed to clarify the illustration;

Fig. 5 is a detail showing an element of construction employed herein.

The childs dress illustrated in the drawing is a wrap around garment selectively adjustable both as to length and fullness.

The dress, in its entirety, is designated 10. The garment is made in two separable parts, a bodice 11 and a wraparound skirt 12. The two elements are secured together by buttons 13, a row of which is sewn or otherwise secured to the lower edge of the bodice portion (see Fig. 2, wherein part of the skirt is cut away), and extends around the bodice. Compare Figs. 1 and 2.

These buttons are passed through buttonholes provided in the waistband 14 of the skirt. Here, two rows 15 and 16 of button-holes, the first being above the latter, and the button holes of the two rows being in alignment, are shown. A convenient construction for the waist band and for the provision of its buttonholes is illustrated in Fig. 5. In this figure fragments of the Waistband 14 and of the upper margin of the skirt 12 are seen. The waistband comprises three horizontal strips 17, 18, and 19 of suitable material. The strips are sewn together edgewise. Strip 17 is sewn to the top of the skirt at 20. The same strip, the top edge 21 of which slightly overlays the bottom edge 22 of strip 18, is sewn to that strip by means of portions 23 of a zigzag stitching. At predetermined intervals the stitching is offset with respect to the line of portion 23, and portions 24 are produced. Strip 18, the top edge of which slightly overlays strip 19, is sewn to strip 18 in a similar manner. Portions 23a and 24a, respectively, correspond to portions 23 and 24. Accordingly, an upper and a lower row of aligned buttonholes are provided. Fig. 3 is a sectional detail of the general structure at the waist of the dress.

The childs dress, as shown, is in shortened condition, the buttons 13 of the bodice 11 having been passed through the lower row 16 of buttonholes of the skirt 12. Plainly, if the bodice and skirt are separated and then reattached with the buttons engaging row 15 of buttonholes, the dress will be in lengthened condition. Here only two rows of buttonholes are shown. However, it is, of course, possible to provide any required number, depending on the range and flexibility of adjustability desired.

In the illustrated dress the bodice is not sewn together at the sides, and this portion of the garment is, essentially a pair of dickeys joined together at the: shoulders. Also the skirt is of the wrap'around type, and, detached from the bodice, is a non-tubular piece of material. Thus the fullness of the dress may readily be varied by a selection of the amount of overlap to be had in the skirt when the latter is buttoned onto the bodice. Of course, fullness of the latter in the illustrated form may be freely varied since the bodice is open at the sides.

The dress is provided with short sleeves 26. Around the shoulder line of the sleeves are rows of buttons 27. Long sleeves, having spaced rows of buttonholes, also near the shoulder line, may be attached to the dress; and, of course, such sleeves may be varied as to effective length in the same manner in which the length of the dress is varied.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view of the side of a blouse 28 or like garment, from which the sleeve has been removed so that it may be clearly seen that the garment is split from the arm hole 29 to the waist 30. A vertical row of buttons 31 is provided near one split edge and two rows of buttonholes 32 and 33 are provided near the other split edge, whereby the fullness of the garment may be varied.

Fig. 4 is also illustrative of utilization of the invention where variation of fullness of a garment is desired and where the vertical split in the garment is from the neck to the waist.

I claim:

1. A garment adjustable as to length comprising a separable bodice and a skirt having an upper edge, said bodice having an encircling row of spaced buttons near its lower edge, and a series of strips of material associated with said skirt, each strip being disposed parallel to said upper edge of said skirt and partially overlapping one of the other of said strips along a region of overlap, one of said strips partially overlapping the upper edge of said skirt along a region of overlap, a line of stitching through each region of overlap, said line of stitching being periodically offset to pass through only one of the constituents comprising that region of overlap, whereby buttonholes are periodically formed in a row in each region of overlap, there thus being formed a series of rows of buttonholes, each row being spaced at a different distance from said upper edge, the buttonholes in each row being spaced for engagement with said buttons so that the buttonholes of each row may alternatively engage said buttons.

2. In a garment such as a dress or the like, means for adjusting said garment for variations in girth, comprising a vertical slit therein, a vertical row of buttons on one side of said slit, and a series of strips, of material associated with the other side of said slit, each strip being disposed parallel to the sides of said slit and partially overlapping one of the other of said strips along a region of overlap, one of said strips partially overlapping the edge of one side of said slit along a region of overlap, a line of stitching through each region of overlap, said line of stitching being periodically offset to pass through only one of the constituents comprising that region of overlap, whereby buttonholes are periodically formed in a row in each region of overlap, there thus being formed a series of roWs of buttonholes, each row being at a different distance from the edge of one side of said slit, the buttonholes in each row being spaced for engagement with said buttons so that the buttonholes of each row may alternatively engage said buttons.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,010,679 Padernacht Dec. 5, 1911 1,951,437 Parfitt Mar. 20, 1934 2,016,664 Brewster Oct. 8, 1935 2,087,763 Liebmann July 20, 1937 2,296,188 Rosernan Sept. 15, 1942 2,297,159 Mohler Sept. 29, 1942 2,331,626 Perlitch Oct. 12, 1943 2,364,062 Fleischer Dec. 5, 1944 2,441,274 Kay May 11, 1948 2,617,991 Killeen Nov. 18, 1952 

